The Big Picture: Downtown as reported on December 25, 1910.

100 years ago, the December 25 Los Angeles Herald had a Christmas Section that, according to the editors, would “prove worthy of careful perusal and preservation of future reference” with its “wonder story” of “the growth of Los Angeles from a sleepy little pueblo to a city of more than 320,000.”

And it certainly does. Beyond telling the story of the city’s growth, the issue also gives a sense what Christmas Eve may have been like in 1910.

Outside the keepsake section, in a small story headlined “Holiday Crowds Join Downtown,” the Herald reported that the "downtown district was filled with the throng of light-hearted Angelenos until the early morning hours.” At 5th and Spring, “fashionables and workingmen with families rubbed elbows” in the marble lobby of The Alexandria for its Fifth Annual Christmas tree unveiling. Revelers packed the hallways and the Mezzanine (now filled in as a second floor) to watch the tree be lit "glittering in its trimmings and dazzling in the brightness of its electric lights." They were then entertained by St. Paul’s pro-cathedral choir and Hotel Alexandria’s own Vienna Artists orchestra, who played after playing their rendering of “a number of selections. They were heartily applauded.”

The hotel was so busy on Christmas Eve that the visiting “Kris Kringle was kept waiting into the wee small hours” of the morning “before the streets were swept bare, when he dared drive his reindeer band over the city.”

Not to be outdone, the lobby and cafe at the Hotel Hayward was “appropriately decorated for the season” including stockings filled with candy and nuts hung by the cafe's large fireplace.

During the day, “thousands of people packed the shopping and business districts [from Broadway to Los Angeles] making last purchases, and the streets railcars were taxed to the limit."

That afternoon, orphans were treated to a live matinee performance at the Pantages (now the Arcade) and the chance to speak to St. Nick. No child went empty-handed, reports The Herald.

Jailers were reported to have arranged for mince pie, sweet potatoes and a cigar to be on the menu, "something which the ordinary prison fare is deviod of."

The crowds increased the “principal corners were congested” with people who arrived by train from "all-points" southwest, the coast, and the San Joaquin Valley. Some temporary relief came around 8pm when shoppers filled restaurants, cafes; or went to see a play, musical or vaudeville show in the theaters on Main, Spring, or Broadway.

As for the special Christmas section, the profiles of captains in industry, oil, and railroads shared pages of photographs and illustrations of developments in progress or just completed; and with testimonials from prominant Angelenos who marveled at how the city has grown.

Downtowners who migrated from the Mid-West or East Coast may have been tempted to ship home a copy––even if just to brag about the weather. That was encouraged by the paper, who had a lengthy article with facts furnished by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Also in the section was an essay “Los Angeles 20 Years Ago Today” by columnist Harry C. Carr, recalling his childhood playing on empty fields along “Broadway, then Fort St” and muses “The Little Los Angeles we knew and loved is gone.”

There is also the less charming editorial that reflects the times. The illustration introducing the Christmas section has the “sleepy pueblo” represented by a lethargic Mexican on a burro in front of Mission style arches. The comic section is led by the then-popular Little Black Sambo strip. Then there is the small item reporting on a San Francisco woman who married a Japanese man in Reno carries a subhead: “Visiting Clergyman Refuses to Witness Ceremony.”

That is also worth some careful perusal and preservation.

If you have some time this holiday break, and do not mind some smaller articles cursed with poor reproduction from microfilmed archives (I can’t read where the Boston Red Sox planned to play a 1911 spring training game Downtown), this is a way to take a break from Facebook and Twitter.

Then again, you may feel right at home with the 100-year-old Herald. A small list of pithy filler items have a few observations that could have been tweeted today: “Christmas brought one blessing, Congress had to adjourn” and “The problem of today is what to do with useless Christmas presents.”